All My Bells are Ringing Just for You
by bellabeee
Summary: A Christmas story about Ezra & Aria!  Told from Ezra's POV.
1. Chapter 1

Just a warning!

Yes, I am one of those crazy people who starts thinking about Christmas the first day of September, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to write a Christmas story about my favorite character romance, Ezra & Aria!

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><p>I wrapped my arms around Aria's waist and planted a kiss atop of her head. Fluffy white snowflakes were starting to lie in her thick dark hair.<p>

"mmm, I love the snow" She said into my chest, being muffled by my jacket.

I chuckled, the smallest things excited her and it was adorable, "Okay you little Eskimo, let's get in the car though, I'm freezing."

We both got into my car and drove back to my apartment. We were out getting takeout and renting a movie and now we were on our way to my apartment for a night of cuddling. Emily was going to be Aria's alibi for the night, so I had her all to myself.

When we got back, we rushed from the car up to 3B, to keep ourselves and the food warm. We walked in and I cranked the heat up to keep us warm. It was December 16th and it was just starting to get to the part of the season where it snowed. It was my favorite time of the year. Everything was so bright and happy and the cold weather made it perfect for cuddling. We both piled onto the big comfy chair and dug into our food. We also put in our movie, tonight; we were watching "It's a Wonderful Life". We were both suckers for Christmas movies, not matter how corny they were.

"I have an idea," I said to Aria, after our food had settled, "Let's set up the tree."

"Right now?" She asked.

"Of course right now! I mean we have less than 10 days until Christmas, so now's a better time than ever."

"I love how you think!" She replied. I probably was nuts planning to start a project like this at 8:30 at night, this was something that required all day.

We both tiptoed down to the storage facility on the bottom level of my apartment complex and brought up the tree and box of ornaments. When we got back up, I started putting the tree together as Aria unwrapped my ornaments asking about each one that looked like it had sentiment.

"Ohh! I like this one!" she cooed, holding up a miniature old fashioned telephone, "where did you get it?"

"Uhmm…" I thought, " that one was from my mom when I went away to Hollis, it was to remind me that she was always a phone call away."

She giggled, "That's cute."

"Thanks." I replied.

"Awe!" She cried as she pulled out another ornament. It was an ornament I made in elementary school, it had my picture in the middle of a lace doily that I decorated heavily with stickers, "look how cute you are!"

At that comment, I think I blushed, "It's hard not to be cute when you're a little kid and obsessed with stickers and anything shiny."

Then she spotted another, "This one is beautiful!" It was a Celtic-looking cross that was made of a dark metal.

"That one was my great grandfather's. My dad gave it to me on my 18th birthday, you know…passing it on."

She just nodded. She was completely in awe of everything. I didn't know if it was just because of Christmas being right around the corner, and it is hard for anyone to be anything but bright eyes when it comes to Christmas, or if it was because she felt like she was digging into a more personal side of me. Either or, neither was a bad thing.

After a few hours of hard work, we stacked the empty opened boxes on top of one another, not bothering to put them away. We turned on the Christmas lights, put on some Christmas music, and sat back down in our chair.

We were completely silent for a while, admiring what we had just created. I looked out the small window and saw that the snow was heavily falling outside.

"It's beautiful." I heard her say in almost a whisper.

I kissed her for a moment, wrapped my arms around her and pulled in closer to one another.

"You're beautiful, Aria." I replied.

"There's something about Christmas that's just so romantic," I barely heard her say, she was quickly drifting off to sleep. I scooped her up and carried her on to the bed and got in beside her. Within minutes Aria and I were fast asleep with her head resting on my shoulder.

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><p>Thank you so much for reading!<p>

I really enjoyed writing it so far, Ezra's POV is my favorite!

If you are reading this, please write me a review. They mean so much to me and the more reviews I get, the faster I will write :)

Thank you again!


	2. Chapter 2

The hustle and bustle of the Christmas season was definitely taking its toll at Rosewood High. My students were constantly off task and could not concentrate if their life depended on it. Usually my day at school would go quite fast, but for the last few days they have been dragging and the only thing I have to look forward to is 6th period, Aria's class.

I always loved having Aria in my classroom, even if we were accompanied by twenty-some of her other classmates. We would glance at each other during class, trying to make eye contact with one another. I feel like we do a pretty good job hiding our feelings, but there was something quite sexy about how taboo it was.

When Aria came into my class, she looked amazing as always. Her lush dark hair was pulled into a messy bun at the nape of her neck. I would have given anything to pull down her hair and run my fingers through it. Being in class could be tempting, but it was always worth it. She was also wearing a long sweater with leggings and boots. I couldn't wait for Christmas break, I was ready for a few days off. This way I could spend some more time with Aria.

I had been contemplating having Aria meet my parents. I was going over to their place, which was about an hour to an hour and a half away from here. They would not know that she was my student, so I felt like it would be the perfect time. I also felt that this would be a good practice round for when we have to start telling people, who knows how much longer that would take. It was not like I was in any kind of rush, but it almost made me kind of anxious thinking about it.

Before I could think of anything else, I heard the bell ringing. Had I really just instructed students for a whole class while completely thinking about something else? I must have caught the Christmas break-itis also. While the students were packing up to leave, I turned to Aria.

"Miss Montgomery, before you go…" I said to her as she was packing up her things. At this she turned around and looked me straight in the eyes. I paused for a second as I tried to pull my thoughts together on what I was going to say to her.

"Yes, Mr. Fitz? Is there something you need?"

"Uhm….yes…actually…" shit…I was crashing and burning here. "Next period is my plan period, can you stay for a few moments? I need to talk to you about the paper you submitted next week." Saved.

"Oh…yeah, I guess. Sure." She replied. She was so good at acting when it came to these kinds of things. I give her props on how well she can keep her cool.

Once all the students had cleared, Aria put the books she had been straightening to waste time on her desk.

"Aria…" I said as she started to walk towards me. She left me nearly speechless. I do not know what it was, maybe it was because we could not show our emotions for the past forty-five minutes, or maybe she just did that to me.

"Mr. Fitz…" she said back in an unintended sexy voice.

I chuckled at her. "Let's stop before we start going at it on the desk."

"Come on! That's what I was going for!"

"Not today, maybe on my double prep days?"

"Holding you too that Fitz."

We both shared a laugh.

"Aria, do you have plans on Saturday?"

"Even if I did, I would cancel them for you."

"Would you want to go with me to see the Christmas trees?" Every year at the Philadelphia museum they put up huge ornately decorated Christmas trees. What better way to celebrate the season.

"Oh! Of course I will! I have always wanted to see them!"

"A date it is then!" I replied as I put my hand on top of hers that rested on top of my desk. "Hun, you better get to class, you're going to be late."

"Ugh!" She groaned, "you sure?"

"Positive."

And with that she left, I wish she could have stayed. However, I was excited for our date over the weekend. I was going to bring up the parent thing while we were there, figured we would do the best thinking when we were engorged when we were happy and together and not just seeing each other five minutes before or after class.


	3. Chapter 3

We arrived at the museum around 6 on Saturday. The snow was falling softly and it looked like something straight out of a movie. Aria looked gorgeous as usual. With her, it was never just one thing, it was always the whole package. She did not just dress exceedingly well or have lusciously soft hair, it was everything.

I held her hand as we walked up the stairs to the entrance of the museum. Large wreaths hung from the pillars and cast a Christmas feel over everything without being overpowering.

"This is perfect," she said to me as we were walking towards the large glass doors. "Thank you so much for taking me here."

"You are more than worth it, Aria." I replied back to her. As we came to the door, I opened it for her and led her in with my hand on the small of her back.

"What do you want to do first?" She asked, quickly flipping through a map and list of current exhibits.

"How about, let's just start here and see where it takes us?" I said back.

"That sounds like a perfect plan. I want to see everything! Just look how beautiful everything is!" She reminded me of a child in a candy store. Typical Aria.

We walked through room after room. Most of it was the normal art museum exhibits that I had seen at least twenty times before. However, I would feel like I was cheating on it if I did not go and see everything. The ornately decorated hallways and lobbies in between exhibit rooms even had their own Christmas feel to them. There was a wreath here and there, small Christmas trees sprinkled throughout, and red and gold décor added in the most tasteful way.

Aria grabbed my hand as we walked towards the main room in the museum. The feeling of her hand in mine was always a welcome feel, especially in a public place. Getting out of Rosewood was always a treat because we could do things like hold hands and be seen together somewhere outside of my apartment. It was such a nice feeling; it's too bad it could not last forever.

"You know what is in here, don't you?"

She nodded her head without looking at me as we stepped through the gigantic doors into a room with ceilings that were too high to fathom.

There were six trees in all. They all were decorated a bit differently, but they were completely gorgeous. They all stood so high that you could not see the top if you were standing directly beside them, you had to take a step back. There was one decorated with a music theme, one that had a baking theme, one that had a snowflake theme, one that had an old Hollywood theme, one that had an around the world theme, and the last one had cross ornaments all over it.

I think it was five minutes before Aria said anything.

She looked up at me, "Thank you so much for bringing me here, this night has been perfect."

"You're welcome, Aria. I would do anything to go on a date with you."

"It's just…everything is just so…romantic" She stumbled over her words.

Instrumental Christmas music played on in the background. There were only 4 or 5 people in the room with us. I put my arms around Aria's waist and planted a kiss on her lips. She kissed back for a moment. It was one of those sweet you-may-kiss-the-bride kind of kiss that only happened in the most perfect moments. I think this qualified.

I was in complete senses overload. I breathed in and smelled the scent of evergreen trees mixed with Aria's spicy perfume. My vision was clouded with glints of gold from all around. Not to mention I had the most perfect girl beside me. And my mouth still felt like Aria's kiss.

We walked around for a bit talking about each tree and picking out our favorite ornament on each one. Aria's favorite was the old Hollywood tree that was covered in film rolls as well as headshots of famous actress and actors such as Aria's personal favorite Audrey Hepburn. My favorite was the crosses tree because it reminded me of the cross ornament I had back at the apartment.

After a while, we finally left the museum and crossed the street to the Starbucks on the corner across from the museum. Aria got a chai tea and I got a black coffee.

"You know what I wish?" Aria asked as she sipped her tea carefully, making sure that it was not too hot to drink.

"What do you wish?" I responded back.

"I wish that we could spend the holidays together. You know, like when you would bring your boyfriend or girlfriend home to meet your family during Christmas and everyone is just so excited and happy? I would give anything for that to happen."

I sighed, I battled with myself in my head as to what I should do. It was a big step—and a good one, but was it too soon? Was it too big? There were a lot of chances I would be taking if I told her about my parents, but was I willing to take them? How well could we lie and keep it together? Would we be able to stick to our stories, even if we rehearse them a million times? But then, on the other hand, I wanted this more than anything. Even though we could not exactly break it to her parents easily, this was different. My mom would be so happy and my dad would love her. My brother would heckle her and tease her just like we do to one another. I knew she would be an instant member of our family, but was that a good thing at this stage. I hated lying to my parents, and anyone really, the encounter would be one big lie. What if they brought up something awkward about Jackie? How would she handle it? How would I handle it?

I took a deep breath.

"Actually…" I could already see the light in her eyes. "I was wondering if you would want to go to my parent's house for Christmas Eve?"

"What?" She said back. She sounded surprised and it seemed like she just wanted to clear up what she just heard.

"Would you want to be my date for Christmas Eve with my family?" I said back, this time with more confidence.

"Are you serious?" She said in response, in disbelief.

"I mean if you don't want to you don't have to, but I just thought…"

"That's a great idea!" She interrupted. She was practically beaming with excitement.

"Would you like that?" I asked.

"You know I would!"

"So it's a date then?"

"Of course!"

"You do know that this is going to take hours of preparation, I don't want to go in there and have them think that you are my student, I need them to think that we met somewhere completely normal…any where but a school."

I could tell that this made her a little bit sad, but she knew it was what had to happen if something like this was going to happen.

"It's a deal." She said after thinking for a moment or two.

I smiled. I was happy.


	4. Chapter 4

It was finally Christmas break. With three more days until Christmas, Aria and I have been preparing for Christmas Eve every spare chance we had. We had carefully practiced the story of how we met hundreds of times already. I was reading one of my stories at a coffee shop, she overheard, we instantaneously fell in love, and the rest was history. We were excited and nervous. Thousands of "what if" questions flooded my mind any time I had a spare second to think, but I always assured myself that everything was going to be fine. Aria told her parents that her and the other girls were going to Spencer's grandma's house for a huge party that they hold every year. Everything was set in place and ready to play out.

Since it was the first day of Christmas break, Aria and I decided that some alone time was in order seeing as she has spent way too much time recently behind a desk in my classroom. Her parents were out of town for the night, so an excuse was not even needed. I picked her up about 15 minutes after her parents left around 4. It was snowing already and showed no signs of letting up. When we got to my place, we ordered a pizza and sat down on the couch together. As the evening went on, the snow got worse, the weather channel eventually issued a weather alert. Aria called her parents to make sure that they were safe and somewhere to stay.

"This is kind of sexy." She said to me as she got off the phone and sat back down. "What better way to be snowed in than with you!"

"I agree," I said back. "It's one of those cliché guilty pleasure fantasies that everyone wants to happen to them, you know, be snowed in with their significant other."

She chuckled at this, "Mr. Fitz's guilty pleasures, huh?"

"Oh please, you know what I mean."

We shared another laugh and were silent for a few moments. Outside, we could hear the snow falling. The glow coming from the windows and the sloshing of cars through the streets also indicated that there were no signs of the snow stopping.

"How simple would life be if it were just like this all the time, just you and me? We would not have to worry what people thought or what lies we were going to tell." She sighed, "Some people do not know how lucky they have it."

I was a bit disappointed at this, "So you don't think you're lucky? That we're lucky?"

"Well yeah, but, I just wish I had you without all of the complications."

"Its worth it right? Do you think it is worth it? For us to be together?"

"Without a doubt," she replied, easing my mind, "but I just feel like we're in so deep sometimes."

"We are. But, if we want this, we are going to have to be knee deep in it until things eventually clear over…which they will…eventually."

"I know, we just have to wait it out."

"I'm excited for you to meet my parents!" I changed the subject quickly, I was over all this depressing talk.

"I am too!" She nearly squealed. "So again, your mom's name is Victoria and your dad's name is John." She said confirming herself.

"You know that, we've gone over it no less than 2,000 times."

"You're exaggerating." She blatantly pointed out. "John and Victoria Fitz." She said, letting the words settle in her mouth. "and your brother, Zack." She corrected, "John, Victoria, Ezra, and Zack Fitz." She thought for a second, "You all sound so fancy."

I chuckled, "We're not. We're just normal people. You'll like them. They'll love you. They will want to ask you every question under the sun, but…" before I could finish my sentence the lights in the room abruptly shut off.

"We must have lost power." She said, filling the silence in the air. The wind howled outside the window.

"Remember what I said about this being a fantasy?" I said and ran my fingers through Aria's lush hair.

Aria came closer to me on the couch and put her hand on top of mine. "Since the power is out, we have no heat." She said, I knew exactly where she was going with this.

"Miss Montgomery," I said half-serious, "What are you implying?"

She leaned towards me. I could have relished in that moment forever. The air around us was thick with promise. I lifted her chin towards me and she came in even closer. Our lips met.

Her lips were soft and tasted like vanilla. I rested my hand on the back of her head and we gained momentum. Our tongues gently pushed into each other's mouths.

I pulled away, "Let's go in my room." She knew what I wanted, and hopefully she wanted it too. I would light candles, I had a whole basket of them for our disposal. I would wrap my arms around her to make her feel warm—and safe. I just wanted things to be romantic. I tried so hard, but sometimes I just needed a moment like this to add to the excitement,

She looked at me with a sort of innocence that I could practically see glowing, even in the dark. "Okay."

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><p>How do you guys like it so far?<p>

Sorry it has taken ridiculously long to update...I've been SO busy with school =(

Next chapter is going to be when Aria meets the Fitz family! So exciting!

And if you're reading this...please review, it means so much to me!

Not to mention it is ridiculously motivating!


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry it took so long for me to update =( I hope the wait is worth it! =)

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><p>The snow had started to melt and we were pulling up to my parents' house. It was an hour and a half drive there. Aria was practically shaking, she was nervous. I was nervous too, but I was doing a good job of keeping it together.<p>

"What if…" she stuttered.

"Please, Aria. Relax." I said, kissing her on the forehead. "Take a deep breath, let's go."

And we did, we walked up a stone covered walkway. The house glittered with lights and I could see the large live tree through the living room window. Before we could even get on the porch, my mom opened up the door, "Ezra!" she exclaimed, "Honey come here!"

"Mom!" I laughed as I gave her a big hug, "I've missed you." I said, stepping into the house, "It smells so good in here!" It felt so nice to be home, I missed it so much. I was always very attached to my family; I was a lot like Aria in that way. I turned around and gave Aria a look to step forward, but before she could even take action, my mom's arms were around her, "Aria! Sweetie! We've heard so much about you!" she pulled away giving Aria a once over, she looked at me, and then back at Aria, "Look at her, Ezra! She's gorgeous!" I could feel my face starting to get hot, I chuckled, "Mom…"

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Fitz." Aria said properly, "I baked some cookies for you and Mr. Fitz."

Of course she is gorgeous, I thought to myself. This was the first time I noticed how amazing she looked tonight. She was wearing an emerald green dress that was knee length, black lace tights, and these amazing heels that made her legs look ridiculously sexy. She had her hair curled and was wearing red lipstick which made her lips look seductive.

"Oh please, Aria, call me Victoria!" my mom soothed, snapping me out of my musing.

"and Mom," I laughed, "This is Aria, my girlfriend."

Wow, that felt amazing. My heart stopped in my chest for a second, I had never called her my girlfriend to anyone except to each other.

"Come in!" my mom cooed, "everyone is in the living room, while I am cooking dinner!" she laughed.

"Some things never change, do they?" I asked rhetorically.

My dad got up and came over to hug us, not nearly showing as much enthusiasm as my mom did, but his actions were sincere.

My brother, Zack didn't even bother getting off the couch. He was with his new girlfriend, Megan. We didn't even bother learning names of Zack's girlfriends anymore because he always had a new one.

Aria did amazing with the introductions; she has such a way with charming people, no wonder why I fell in love with her so quickly.

My family was big on watching "The Christmas Story" over and over when it is on for 24 hours during Christmas, so we were all pretty absorbed. Zack, Megan, Aria and I crammed together so we could all fit on the couch, while my dad sat in his chair. Aria was tucked perfectly beside me and had her head resting on my shoulder. This moment was amazing and I wished I could have stayed in it forever.

Aria turned to me, "I'm going to go talk to your mom," she said, hushed into my ear.

She was being gutsy, but I liked that. I was surprised of her move, but happy.

I watched her walk into the kitchen and she started helping my mom cut vegetables. It was the most perfect sight, the two women in my life talking—and laughing with each other. I never thought this would be happening—not with Aria, I thought it was just a fantasy of mine.

My dad leaned over to me from his chair, "You got a ring for her yet?" he asked seriously. I was shocked.

"No," I nervously laughed, "why would you ask that?"

"I can tell you love her." He replied, "You get this look that I've never seen you get before. You didn't get that way with Jackie."

"What do you mean?" I knew what he meant, but I was still in disbelief that this conversation was happening. My parents knew that we had only been together for a few months. Of course it was serious—we knew that…but they didn't.

"You look like your ready to bang her…and she looks like she wants it" Zack said, not turning away from the television. I didn't even know he was listening to this conversation. At this Megan playfully hit him.

"Thank you Zack for always ruining a serious moment." I said back sarcastically.

"Why the hell did he end up like this?" my dad joked. "You turned out to be such a gentleman and our other one…"

"Love you too Dad." Zack snapped back.

"But anyhow, Ezra" my dad said carefully, "she's the one isn't she? Sooner or later, she's going to be my daughter in law. Am I right?"

"Of course you are." I replied.

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><p>Hopefully everyone enjoyed it! It was a fun chapter to write!<p>

There is so much more to come of the Fitz family Christmas Eve!

If you are reading this, please review, it truly means the world to me.


	6. Chapter 6

The evening was going wonderful, it truly was. I felt like I was in some sort of fantasy world with Aria and when the clock struck midnight the carriage would turn back into a pumpkin and the chauffeurs would turn back into field mice. Or more realistically, my perfect girlfriend would become my perfect girlfriend who just happened to be a student in my class. However, I was greatly enjoying our time at my house. Not to mention I was looking forward to spending the night with Aria in my old room. Of course we did not dare to try to do anything. Even though I was well of age and they believed that Aria was as well, it still seemed a little bit off to be hooking up with my girlfriend in my old room at my parents house—with my parents only being separated by a door. I was just looking forward to being able to hold her in my arms and to keep each other warm for the entire night.

Christmas Eve dinner was amazing, everyone got along perfectly. Aria was as eloquent as ever and my parents were eating her up. She was definitely winning for the favorite girlfriend award between herself and Megan. I mean, she was nice and all don't get me wrong, and she was cute, but she just didn't have any type of connection with my parents. You would have never guessed that this was Aria's first time with my family in our house and she fit in perfectly.

In between dinner and desert, I decided to run upstairs to go to the bathroom, I could have used he one downstairs, but I wanted to take a quick trip and reminisce and check out my old room. However, halfway down the hallway I heard footsteps coming up the stairs after me. I figured it was probably Aria. When I turned around, I was surprised to see my brother chasing after me.

"Ezra, hey…" he said, clearly having a motive for following me.

"Zack…" I said, giving him an odd look, "Why did you follow me up here? Is it something about Megan?"

"I don't mean to be confrontational or anything, but what is going on here? With Aria?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was confused, there was no way he could know that I was her high school English teacher. They all thought she was a student at Hollis, that's what we told them and they had no way knowing differently. I felt my throat go dry.

"I'm not trying to play Nancy Drew here, but seriously...what is going on?"

"What in the hell are you talking about Zack? What are you trying to say?"

"How old is she, Ezra?"

"Twenty…which is fine, look at mom and dad, they are eleven years apart, and look how happy they are!" I said, trying to justify everything.

He lowered his eyes at me, "Twenty?"

"…Well…" I said, fumbling and searching for words to say. I felt like my Christmas Eve dinner was going to be on the floor any moment now.

"Listen, I have your back. I'm not going to say anything to mom or dad or anyone, but on her keychain that she brought out, she had her license in the ID holder, and it was still one of the ones that was vertical, and it had a yellow and a red bar…meaning that she's not over 18."

I was left speechless. Everything was planned, but a stupid little thing like a license gave it away. I had not even thought of that. Why didn't I tell her to leave her god damn license in the car, or better yet her whole purse, who knew what other kind of secrets would be revealed if someone accidentally saw something inside of it.

"Ezra?" he said, "Your eyes are glazing over."

I blinked a few times.

"Zack, I promise it's not bad…when we met I didn't know, and then I came into school that day and there she was right in front of me…in my class, and here we are…but we're in love and even though it seems so wrong, and trust me I know in a legal and professional sense I am practically committing suicide, but I just…"

"Listen," he said in a hushed voice, "You two are obviously in love, Mom and Dad even are picking up on it, which is amazing that they are doing so in itself…I don't care what the story is, I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear any of what you just said…but I just wanted to see what was going on."

I hugged him. "Thank you so much."

"I am here for you, you know that. I know I may act like a jerk half of time time, but remember," he playfully punched my shoulder, "That's only half the time."

I took a deep breath, that wasn't so bad.


	7. Chapter 7

It was around 11pm and my mom and dad were already in bed. Zack, Megan, Aria, and I had already changed into our comfy sweats and we were playing some intense games of Just Dance on Zack's Wii that he brought home from college. Thank goodness we had something to do because the situation had much potential to be unfathomably awkward. Finally, Megan said she was getting tired, so her and Zack were going to go to sleep. I was happy about that because I wanted a chance to talk to Aria alone downstairs so there would not be any chance of someone overhearing our conversation.

"Goodnight guys!" Aria called up the stairs at them, "Merry Christmas!" She was so adorable sometimes, she had this ridiculously charming air about her that could attract anyone from a mile away.

She came back over into the living room and slumped down beside me on the couch. I didn't want to come out and say anything right away, but I needed to do it quickly.

"Oh my goodness! Ezra! I had such an amazing time! You're family is perfect…can we just stay here forever? It's like everything that brings me happiness all mixed into one, it's so happy here! Do you think they like me? It seems like they do?" She took a big sigh, "I'm talking too much."

I let out a small laugh, "I'd prefer not to live with my parents forever, but I'm happy you like them and I'm happy you like it here. This…this is my home, and I'm so glad that you find yourself happy here." I took a deep breath, trying to find a good time to let the cat out of the bag. "They love you, Aria. My dad even asked me if I was going to propose to you."

She raised an eyebrow at this and slowly nodded, "and what was your response?"

"Well I told him not now, obviously, but eventually…my parents think you're in college, so they wouldn't expect something right now. They could tell that I am in love with you. And they love you too."

Aria smiled, and I kissed her on the forehead, putting my arm around her.

"Zack and Megan are nice too! Zack is a little bit wild, but fun."

"Don't go crushing on my brother now!" I joked.

"Please," she said, rolling her eyes. "You know that you are the only one for me."

We sat there, almost awkwardly, for a few seconds, "Aria…about Zack…"

"What?" she said, she sounded confused.

"He knows about us. I didn't tell him but he knows."

She sat up out of her slump at this, "What! Wait, what do you mean?"

"He knows that you're 17, Aria."

"Well how the hell did he find out?" she questioned in a hushed voice.

"He saw your drivers license, and he recognized that it had everything that made it an under 18 license."

"Shit." She said in a whisper.

"Yeah…"

"I'm sorry," she apologized, looking me in the eyes, "I really did not even think of that."

"I trust him though, so it is okay, we just have to be careful…you know?"

"I trust him too, and I agree."

I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head, "Someday this will all be better, someday soon Aria."

"It's just so hard…why does this have to be so wrong?"

"It is not wrong…it's just hard for others to understand, but Zack was okay with it, other people will be too." I gave her a squeeze, "The only thing I want for Christmas is you."

"Well you can have an early Christmas present. I am yours forever, Ezra."

After a few silent moments, Aria whispered to me, "I think I'm ready for bed, it's been a long day."

We tiptoed up to my bedroom and she looked around it with her eyes wide open with awe.

"It's exactly like a smaller version of your apartment." She walked around resting her hands on things here and there.

"Nice computer!" she laughed at the large desktop computer from 1997 that was sitting on a desk.

"Thanks" I smiled back.

Next she went over to a frame on the wall that had many pictures of my family and I from when I was younger.

"You were adorable!" she said in a hushed whisper, "I can't believe you've never showed me pictures from when you were a kid! I can see why you turned out the way you did." She added with a flirty smile.

"What can I say?" I chuckled, "You've never asked, and it's not like I just keep baby pictures of myself hanging up…that would just be strange." I shook my head.

"I guess you're right…" she trailed off.

Within a minute or two, we were both lying in bed, we were tired and had long, wonderful day today.

Aria scootched closer towards me and laid her head on my chest, "Everything will be alright, right?"

I thought for a second, would it be? "Eventually, yes they will. Everything will work out and fall into place. It's not going to be easy, but it will be worth it."

"I hope so." She sighed, her eyes were closed and I could tell it would be within seconds before she drifted off to sleep.

"It's after twelve," I whispered as I kissed the top of her head, "Merry Christmas, Aria, I love you."

She tilted her sleepy head up towards my face and gave me a quick kiss before nuzzling back into my chest. "I love you too" she whispered back, the end of her sentence barely audible.

I did not want the night to end, everything was perfect. This was the way things between Aria and I were supposed to be, uncomplicated. Someone even found out our secret, and it was fine. The world did not come crumbling down upon us. It was a baby step, but it was still a step. Right here, in this moment, all was good in my world. The next morning that would change and we would go back to our prior ways. I wish that I could just hang out with Aria and Ella and Byron and Mike in the morning. Unwrap presents with them, eat dinner with them, and be with Aria around them. Unfortunately that could not happen right now, however, it would some day. That was something I had no question in my mind about. Things would eventually straighten out; they just had to.

I looked down at Aria, the way she was sleeping made her look like an angel. Her face was surrounded by her thick dark hair that was still curly from all day today. I kissed her forehead and wrapped my arms around her, trying not to disturb her sleep.

"Aria, I love you so much. Even though things aren't perfect right now, they will be, and I promise this to you. And someday, when you're done with school and we both have everything worked out, I want to make you my wife and eventually have a family with you. The only thing I could ask for this Christmas is this moment right now." I gave her another kissed on the forehead.

I don't know if I wanted her to hear that or not, or if she really did hear it or not, but I squeezed her tightly and looked out the window at the snow lightly falling.


End file.
